I will share new products that I find to help our families affected with Autism and news stories that I find interesting.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Former bus aide sentenced for slapping child with autism

I found this on WFLA.

On Wednesday a judge sentenced a former bus aide to 11 months and 29
days behind bars. The former aide, James Lambert, will also be required
to serve probation, take an anger management course and write an apology
to the victim.

Lambert, 59, plead guilty to two charges of battery. A camera caught him slapping a child with autism in June 2014.

Lori Lamb called it “a prayer answered” as she watched Lambert led away in handcuffs.

“He’s getting what he deserved,” Lamb said about the plea deal.

The victim, Jeffery, was 10 years old when the incident occurred.
Jeffery was riding home from school. Video showed him being slapped
multiple times by Lambert.

“You would think that with a videotape, that it’s a open and shut dry case, but it’s not,” Lamb said.
Lambert’s attorney Matthew Kindel doesn’t deny the incident happened.

“Nobody wants to hit a kid, you know. Mr. Lambert, as you may have
heard, does have some mental disabilities of his own. He has an IQ of
68. He’s been learning disabled his entire life,” Kindel said.

“As Mrs. Lamb said, he was not in a position that he probably should’ve been in with the school system,” Kindel added.

Lamb challenged that.

“He had all the opportunities in the world to come forward and say,
‘Hey, look I can’t handle Jeffery. I can’t handle this bus. I can’t
handle the situation. Please move me,’ and he didn’t do that,” she said.

Lambert’s days in court aren’t over. The Lambs hired Jose Baez, Casey
Anthony’s attorney, for a civil case against Lambert and the Pasco
County School District.